The Sound of Silence Lyrics

Lyric discussion by herroux 

Cover art for The Sound of Silence lyrics by Paul Simon

Ok, so basically Paul / the narrator has a dream/an idea that strays from the current way of thinking, and everyone else that seems to be portrayed as 'sheep' will not see that his idea is worth any thought (the words like silent raindrops fell). And there's this neon sign that represents like.. mass culture, i see it as television or something. But does anyone get why the sign would be the one to flash the warning that seems to go against the whole 'sheep' concept, where the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls. It seems like the narrator would be the one trying to tell them that, if anyone

perhaps its that in the form of the mass media (that was just coming into swing at the time of this song) we are breeding our own message, at the time we should also note that it was part of the times for the people who stood up to be shut down, by police action (I was just talking to my mom about this today). But the message got out it was still there but you had to find it.

I think it is an anthropomorphized neon sign warning the silent people that “the words of the prophets”, or ideas that used to be incredibly meaningful, are “written on the subway walls and tenement halls” — are now written in crappy public places alongside posters, dirt, and graffiti. The meaning has been lost. The words and ideas they conveyed are now no more important than any other carelessly scribbled message. And yet, and yet. These important words are also “whispered in the sounds of silence”. I personally like to think this means that, though much of what we blather...

Personally I'm very inclined to believe this was an actual dream he had. In which he saw a bunch of people who were doing everything like they normally would talking and conversing and singing songs and such but everything was put on mute... so then I would think that whenever he was in a situation where it was silent like that again it would remind him of the dream like deja`vu. The poet he naturally is I'm guessing he would try and find a deep meaning in such a perplexing scene. And actually "BGHSSBW's" comment helped me understand it a...